Red Bull insists Newey 'not retiring'

On Sunday, off the back of reported huge-money poaching efforts by Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren, the world champion team announced that Newey has agreed a new "multi-year" deal.

But Red Bull also said 55-year-old Newey will be working on "new Red Bull Technology projects", while merely "advising and mentoring" the F1 team "as it develops its formula one cars over the next few seasons".

And interviews given by Newey in the hours before Sunday's Canadian grand prix made it sound as though the Briton is stepping away from F1.

Indeed, Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko admits Newey is "disappointed" at the state of today's F1, where unbridled technical inspiration is a thing of the past.

"One must understand that whatever he has done has been banned or restricted by the rulemakers shortly thereafter," he lamented.

"The technical rules have clearly restricted his work, which has frustrated him, but instead of losing him, we have found this solution.

"Newey will remain active with Red Bull Racing for another year," Marko told Germany's Sky, but at the same time he will be fronting what Marko referred to as the new 'Advanced Technology Centre'.

How Newey will split has time has "not yet been fully defined", Marko admits, "but Adrian's genius and incredible wealth of experience will still be available to the team."